Happy Nasty

Whew! Justin Masterson got himself some run support. Not just a few runs but EIGHT runs. Masterson hasn't won since APRIL, even though he was only giving up 2 runs per game for most of June.

I forget who else we used to do that to. Westbrook, maybe. Anyone remember?

Anyway, our ace looked ace-y tonight for real. Eight innings, 1 run, 5 strikeouts, 2 double plays. Dude even got a HIT. He got his 6th win, making him 6-6.

Really great that he went 8 innings tonight, since Chris Perez (happy birthday!) is out on bereavement leave until Sunday night (sorry you lost your grammy).

Chad Durbin came in to pitch the 9th, probably just to get some work. He hasn't worked since June 20.

A lot has been said about how cool Masterson has been about this whole "no run support" thing. Everyone has been giving a lot of props to him for being such a nice guy. Manny Acta explained to Jordan Bastian how Jesus kept Nasty from actually getting nasty:

"I think his upbringing has a lot to do with it," Acta said. "He's a Christian man of a lot of faith, one of the best teammates, very positive, low-key, down to earth."

I contend that his beard (and now lack of beard) had something to do with all of it.

I didn't get to give my "OMG ASDRUBAL!!" shout-out on Facebook or Twitter tonight for his 14th home run, because I was out and about. But when I got home and saw the final score I knew it'd be worth my while to check out the archived audio. Totally was!

It was a really well-pitched game by Masterson (duh) and the guys looked good in the field - especially Lonnie Chisenhall at third (shit...we have a backlog of third basemen?!) I wonder how it is that we play so well against the Reds? Did someone convince the team that this Ohio Cup or Battle of Ohio or whatever it is is important or something? If you recall, we scored 19 runs over 3 games in May. Chalk us up for 27 runs in 2011 with two more games to go!

Man, ALMOST everybody hit today and it wasn't even the pitcher who was left out, it was Lou Marson who actually hit in the last 3 games. LOUUUUUUU! You're killing me! He did have a Caught Stealing tonight, for his 17th. He doesn't lead the league but the 3 guys ahead of him have twice as many games as him. So he's pretty awesome behind the plate.

Ok so, like I said, Asdrubal got home run number 14 and RBIs 48 and 49. Would you like to know how many career home runs he had coming in to the 2011 season? I'll tell you. It's 18. Asdrubal is hitting .500 against the Reds.

Right after that, as in the next batter, Carlos Santana smacked one out too. He's only got 12 homers - doesn't it seem like he's had more? Ah, I see. He got a whole ONE in May, so his April and June made him on track for more than we've actually seen.

Speaking of seeing things, check out the guy at :18 in this clip of Santana's home run. There's some Santana doppelgänger out there and he's a fan!


Oh! Grady also got a home run today, and a double, hitting 5th. Un-slumped? I guess - he's hit in his last 4 games. And what of Brantley? Another hit tonight but jury's still out on that. It doesn't seem like he is even eligible for a slump this season, really - but I suppose we'd rather he be in a slump than all of a sudden actually bad.

Time will tell!

Travis Buck...he had two hits tonight and two RBI. Hitting really well over the past 10 days. Now "day to day" with a hurt leg. That's all I got to say about that.

You know who's hot, even though he's back in the midwestern humidity? Orlando! I saw the nickname "Grandbrera" for him on Twitter the other day. Uncle got himself 2 more hits today and turned them into 2 runs scored. Would you like to see the Dos Cabreras secret handshake? Here you go, scroll over to :29. Actually you can watch the whole thing because it's Asdrubal going deep, and then some douchebag in pinstriped shorts and a white belt throwing the ball back, too. You rock on with your bad self, angry Cincinnatian.

Really fun game tonight. Totally worth me staying up until almost 3 AM to take it all in.

Tomorrow's game is at 4:10 PM and it's on FOX, just like last Saturday. I think I could get used to this sort of schedule on the weekends. Although I do love my Sunday afternoon TV games too. More broadcast baseball, please!

See you tomorrow!

Radio Chatter:
"You come to this balllpark and you'd better score runs. You're not going to see many 1-0 games in this ballpark."
- Tom Hamilton

"Justin Masteron has a lead!"
- Tom Hamilton, after just 2 innings

"Can you imagine Brett Favre uncorking a throw from short?"
- Tom Hamilton talking about Favre's amature baseball career

"Dusty [Baker] thought 'if that idiot on the radio thought of it, why didn't I think of it two innings ago?'"
- Tom Hamilton noticing that the Reds got someone warming up as soon as he mentioned it

"Does anybody ever get hurt when they're in a slump?"
- Tom Hamilton on the exit of the hot-hitting Travis Buck

"Boy, it's hard to think of a third baseman right now who has a stronger throwing arm than Lonnie Chisenhall."
- Tom Hamilton

"If the Indians are in town, Brandon Phillips is going to have a big weekend. He just absolutely TORTURES the Indians. It's almost as if he wants to make sure the Indians never forget they let him get away."
- Tom Hamilton

"We're going to get to see the Cuban Missle, Aroldis Chapman. He can throw 100 miles an hour, but there's a chance he'll also throw it up here to our broadcast booth."
- Tom Hamilton Aroldis Chapman's control

"Two hours for Rowland, but an hour and twenty minutes for Rosie."
"You gotta make up your mind. I've been accused of driving slowly before, too."
- Tom Hamilton on driving from Cincinnatti to Indianapolis

"All Drew Stubbs is trying to do right now is padding his stolen base total. You know what's going to happen to Drew Stubbs this weekend? He's going to get drilled."
- Tom Hamilton does not like you trying to steal when we've given up trying to throw you out

"What the remaining Reds fans are saying now is that the fireworks better be phenomenal. Because the game got ugly quick for Reds fans."
- Tom Hamilton

Right-Side Up

Oh my god how much do we love Carlos Carrasco?! His June was awesome, giving up just 4 runs over 6 starts! And he finagled 4 wins out of those 5 starts too. He got 28 strikeouts in those 5 games and only walked 5.

Wow, wow! I would give you some numbers to compare him to our other starters in June (who aren't horrible themselves) but MLB.com seems to have rolled out a new Web technology today on their previously-very-nice stats section and rendered it useless for the moment.

Any of you out there play fantasy baseball, and any of you pick up Carrasco? I told my brother to pick him up for today and if he "lost it" then dump him. My brother did not pick him up - and Carlos did not lose it. Woohoo!

Carrasco also batted ok today. He's no Josh Tomlin, of course, but he did do 2 successful sac bunts! One of those bunts led to a run scored, even.

Relieving Carrasco in the 8th and 9th were Pestano and then Chris Perez. They did what you thought they'd do, bitches.

The team was going cr-azy today with hits, getting FIFTEEN and walking 6 times, as well as one HBP. That's 21 men on base. Er...which if you think about it is sort of weak that we only got 6 runs...

Nevertheless...! FIVE doubles for our guys today! I'm just going to roll down the lineup like I did in the old days (April) and tell you how awesome everybody was.

Michael Brantley! Walked once and got one hit, so is he out of his slump? Eh, maybe not. He only has 7 hits over the last 10 games but they all came in like 3 games. Ouch! He did get one RBI and score one run.

Ok ok the NEXT guy is much more exciting than Brantley right now. Orlando! Know how many hits he got today? FOUR hits! He got one RBI and scored two. Orlando got his 12th double of the season, and he's hit 3 doubles over the past 4 games. Combined with that game-winning homer from Monday, he's all of a sudden our power guy! I told you this weather was good for old guys, right?

Asdrubal. What did you expect of him today? Three for 5 with a walk and an RBI? Yeah sounds about right. Does he lead the team in doubles? Uh, yeah! Does he lead AL short stops? Duh! Does he lead the league? Of course not...but he's in the top 10!

Carlos Santana! Got the game's first run right there in the first inning. For every strikeout he had, he was also on base. Good enough?

Shelley Duncan, later replaced by Travis Buck. Together they went 2 for 4 with a run, an RBI and a walk. Buck got one of them doubles, too.

Red alert! Austin Kearns even managed to get a hit today! There was magic in the climate-controlled air!

Sweet Lou Marson! Looking quite sharp running those bases. He went 2 for 4 with a walk and a run scored, getting one of those doubles.

Even Supermanahan, who we still hang our heads and say "well, he's really good at third base..." got in on the act and got himself a double as well, and a walk.

All-in-all, our lineup wrung out 5 of their pitchers while our guys breezed through. Honestly it seemed like Pestano and Perez came in just for some exercise. Agreed?

In case you were wondering, the Diamondbacks are no slouches. In fact they have a slightly higher winning percentage than we do (our .532 to their .537). It's not like we just rolled over the Royals or something. It was a great show against an evenly-matched team. Huzzah!

Just three more games without Hafner (and, like, a million without Choo...) and we'll be back home, hitting home runs and enjoying the Eastern time zone.

In the meantime, you've got tonight off and tomorrow night too, and we're back in it on Friday at 7:05 in Cincinnati! Oh man, we totally won't be seeing our friend Edinson Volquez pitching on that trip. Bummer! Ah well, I'm sure we can beat up on the Reds' other pitchers just fine.

See you Friday!

Radio Chatter:
"We're in the desert! If you don't believe me, the temperature is 113 degrees and the humidity is 18 percent."
- Tom Hamilton

"Sorry Ryan Roberts, you're not that good. Carlos Carrasco is not trying to hit you. Unless Rosie told you to, because of all the tattoos, which seem to really bother [Rosenhause] this series."
- Tom Hamilton

"That's a little play, that doesn't end up in the box score...but just a little slide prevented a double play. [...] Now you've got runners at the corners with one out."
- Tom Hamilton on Austin Kearns' baserunning in the 3rd

"The park is air-conditioned and your car is air-conditioned, but people don't want to make the walk from the car to the ballpark in this heat."
- Jim Rosenhaus on the struggle to get people to come to day games in Arizona

Backwards

So this is weird...1) All of our starting lineup hit except two guys - Brantley and Asdrubal 2) Our bullpen gave up 4 runs in 2 innings 3) We LOST in walk-off fashion

What is going on here?! It was weird enough that the game was won yesterday by Orlando Cabrera's homer (??) but this is almost too much weirdness. If tonight were game 82, I'd be freaked out that it was the beginning of Opposite Half.

Don't worry, it's only game 78.

So hey, how about that Josh Tomlin? Not only did dude give us 7 solid innings only giving up 2 runs and striking out 4...but he also recouped one of those two runs HIS OWN DAMN SELF by singling in a run! How about that?!

And...AND...he picked off their pitcher in to end the 5th. Good game, Josh Tomlin...goooooood game.

On the radio one of the guys noted that both starters were strong (indeed, AZ's guy also gave up 2 and got an RBI!) but if we could get to the bullpen it'd be smooth sailing for us. Since our bullpen is so superior and stuff. And it IS! Except not tonight! WTF?

The bullpen just wasn't their rock-solid selves. Granted, you can't give up 0 runs every inning forever. It was seriously, seriously unfortunate that Raffy and Sipp both gave up their first runs in forever on the same night.

Our lineup was goofy and B-list tonight but really, we scored 4 runs and got 8 hits. Tonight definitely wasn't a case of the batters letting the pitcher down.

Lonnie Chisenhall was on it again tonight, smacking his 2nd double in as many major league appearances. He came around to score a run too.

Also with doubles tonight are the suddenly-powerful Orlando and Shelley "Happy To Be Here" Duncan! Shelley had some leather playing first, too, but also had a bit of a blown play later on. But hey, he was almost filling the position of "warm body" today so it's all good.

Carlos Santana! Dude tied the game up with a 2-run dinger in the 9th and it was a-freaking-mazing. How many of you called it? I know I totally did!

Also, how many of you think "ugh, Carlos Santana. He needs to hit a goddamn home run right now and not strike out" every time he comes up to bat? Yeah, me too. And yeah, that's "calling it."

All in all not bad stuff from our Hafner-Choo-LaPorta-Hannahan-less skeleton crew tonight. Imagine how it might have been if Brantley wasn't in a slump (the Twitterverse called it official). Grady's in a slump too. And imagine if Asdrubal wasn't, I don't know...sad because he hates being in Arizona thinking about how half a million people think Derek Jeter is better than him? Something. He wasn't too shabby yesterday! I think the new ASG counts came out today, though...

3:40 PM game tomorrow (I did not know this, my damn calendar says 9:40!) and guess who's pitching? It's our favorite guy Carlos Carrasco! Their starter looks crummy. And you know our bullpen won't be bad two days in a row, it just does. not. happen. If they truly are any sort of mafia, someone will leave a dead animal of some sort in someone else's locker and a message will be sent and no one will give up any runs until sometime in August.

See you tomorrow!

Radio Chatter:
"From the outside it looks like an airplane hangar. You'd never know it was a baseball stadium from the outside."
- Tom Hamilton on Chase Field

"They're all down his arms, coming up his neck. He's missing the Mike Tyson face tattoo but that's about it...I didn't go any further than that. That's taking reporting a little too far."
- Jim Rosenhaus on Ryan Roberts' tattoos

"Based on how they are ordering things down below, the staff Christmas party is OFF. The budget has been blown."
- Tom Hamilton on the Indians' back office party downstairs

"He doesn't look comfortable against the submarine style pitching of Joe Smith. Most right-handers don't feel comfortable."
- Tom Hamilton on Justin Upton

"Tony Sipp is not paying any attention to the baserunner. You just can't do that in a tie game in the 9th!"
- Tom Hamilton

Snakes and Ladders

Wow man. I was really scared coming in to this game, I'm not going to lie. With the way we played over the weekend and the recent outings of their starter, I was really afraid we were going to completely blow it in front of my aunt & uncle, who are DBackers to the point of having a shrine room. And we'd fall further behind the Tigers in the standings.

I also worried that all of our barking for Lonnie Chisenhall to be brought up would be for naught as he struggled to get settled in the majors.

I was wrong, I was wrong and I was wrong!

We start with pitching, which was run-of-the-mill Talbot. Three runs on 3 hits, 2 walks and 2 strikeouts. Mitch was yanked after 5 innings and 71 pitches in favor of Travis Hafner batting with 2 on and 2 out, which I was not totally opposed to. Except he struck out. Although Talbot was looking great since he gave up 3 in the first inning, Hafner did have a better chance at getting more runs in than him. Plus, we had the whole #BullpenMafia looking to bust out.

And bust out they did. We got almost the entire gang - Smith, Sipp, Pestano, Raffy and Rage. The only one that had a little problem was Pestano who gave up two hits and a run. But, as Rick from Waiting For Next Year tweeted: "Can't even be mad at Pestano. First run he's given up since little league I think." Yeah, pretty much.

Raffy pitched to one guy and got the win, but it was a big strikeout, closing out Pestano's bad inning. Rage came in and gave up a hit, I think in order to allow himself to get the next 3 out or something, and then he got the save.

And now, the exciting story of our bats waking up!

First off, many thanks to Asdrubal for coming out of whatever funkety-funk he's been in lately (got down to .290. Can you believe it?!) and hitting a 2-run dinger at his first at-bat, surely to impress my aunt and uncle who were sitting in the stands behind him. He went 2 for 4 tonight, bringing his average back up to a respectable-for-Asdrubal .295.

Asdrubal's other hit was a double in the 6th, and he was driven in by none other than sometimes-Indian Travis Buck! Buck also had a lovely catch in the 9th to help out ol' C. Perez.

So - Lonnie Chisenhall! His first at-bat he flew out. Then everyone in Cleveland breathed a sigh of relief as little cousin started off the 5th with a double! Woohoo! Save the ball!

Wait, it gets better! Later on in the 6th he got his first RBI, which was the go-ahead RBI! So, hopefully he'll be back tomorrow. Sorry Adam Everett...

So then Pestano gives up the tying run and we're all tied yadda yadda Orlando Cabrera hits a home run.

Serious! I mean, we have seen him do well in clutch situations and we have seen him ho-hum us at the plate. It was more in the first few weeks of the season that we were wowed. They do say the dry heat is excellent for old folks. Whatever, it was a night for Dos Cabreras to go long and go long they did.

Orlando Cabrera won the game with a home run.

That's why we love baseball, folks - anything can happen!

I don't know if you read the box scores in the morning but check this nonsense out. This is slightly extreme but this is generally how National League box scores end up:

Can you even follow that? Yeesh.

So, I'm pretty happy. Going to go to bed happy. Going to look forward to tomorrow's game and everything, maybe get myself some more popsicles.

Don't forget, 9:40 PM tomorrow and Wednesday. The pitching matchup tomorrow is absolutely even, stats-wise. Can't wait to see what Lonnie Chisenhall has going on in his second game!

Radio Chatter:
"Travis Buck has racked up the frequent flyer miles going between home and Columbus."
- Tom Hamilton

"And how 'bout the kid?"
- Tom Hamilton on Lonnie Chisenhall

"My friend went golfing today, his tee-time was 2:30. Since nobody is outside golfing since it's so darned hot, it was $7 to tee off at 2:30 on a nice course!"
- Tom Hamilton can't believe how hot it is in Arizona

C is for Cookie

Carlos "Cookie" Carrasco is on FIRE lately! Only gave up 1 run in his last 3 starts (tonight). He crept up on a no-no into the 6th inning, with only one walk. Until he gave up a hit in the 6th, he had pitched 21.1 scoreless innings in a row. I don't know what's gotten into this kid (he's 24) but DAMN! Anyone picking him up for fantasy? He's 6-1 over his last 7.

In case you were wondering who Carlos Carrasco is, let me introduce you:

MLB.com

Awesome relief pitching, as usual. Joe Smith is still rockin' the under-2.0 ERA (1.29). Our man Sipp! gets his second closing opportunity in as many nights, again giving up none. Both guys struck out 2!

Hafner didn't play tonight, and Grady was at DH. But we still looked fine without Pronk, which is great. Means he's not carrying us yet making us stronger.

Grady rocked out tonight with a double and a triple. The triple was due to some great baserunning on a looked-like-a-homer ball. If Manny Ramírez had hit a ball like that he may have been thrown out at first.

Asdrubal, gettin on base, stealin' bases, scoring runs, batting .301.

CHOOOOO 1 for 2, with 2 walks. Walking a lot lately which means that he's really focused at the plate. He had 10 walks and 28 strikeouts in May, but with June more than halfway over he's already got 7 walks and only 12 strikeouts. Tonight he went the other way for his hit, got an RBI and got his 10th stolen base as well. Nice stuff!

Carlos Santana did not get a hit tonight BUT...he got a sac fly for an RBI. He hasn't had one of those since May. Brantley also got himself a SF-RBI.

Orlando Cabrera is making a case for himself. He did sort of miss a ball to give the Pirates their first hit in the 6th, but then he came back and hit his 3rd homer of the year. Hrm.

Austin Kearns is doing better in an occasional role. He had a hard time getting started off the bench, but he's hit in 3 out of his 5 games here in June. Tonight he went 2 for 4 and scored a run.

Sweet Lou Marson was behind the plate again tonight, which my friend C agrees with me is the right place for him. Now that LaPorta is out for a bit (owie in the ankle with video *shudder*) we should see more Carlos at first. And we get Buck back too. Man I hate to lose LaPorta but I do like those players in those places...but, speedy recovery to Matt - he wasn't having too bad of a month.

Great great team effort again tonight, just like we've gotten used to. Solid starting pitching, shutout relief, small ball offense.

Hafner's back in tomorrow night. I'm excited to see the lineup! I might watch the game on tv with my dad if that's ok with everyone. No Radio Chatter, then. But that's ok as it's a little tiring this weekend without Tom Hamilton.

It's a 1:05 game tomorrow, bring your broom! Heck I might bring my broom to my dad's, just cuz I paid for it and stuff.

See you then!

Radio Chatter:
"The final count was over 60,000 dogs last night. [...] Sales of antacid in the Cleveland area were high today."
- Jim Rosenhaus on Friday's Dollar Dog Night

"Hammy is our big toe."
- Jim Rosenhaus on Tom Hamilton's absence

"Nobody can hit that breaking ball, Mike."
"Not just this ball club, nobody period."
- Jim Rosenhaus and Mike Hegan on Carrasco's breaking ball

"How many hitters would have watched it and not gotten to 3rd base?"
- Jim Rosenhaus on Grady's home-run-turned-triple

Excited For Baseball!

Man, what a good baseball game. I mean REALLY good baseball game!

I could totally feel this coming, after our performance in New York, a tiny win and then a loss to Verlander. That was all different and tonight was it.

The KEY to tonight's game was Fausto not freaking the fuck out. Three runs in the first...and no freakout. Only one of those was an earned run, perhaps that was it. He outlasted their starter, but only going 5. I like the move by Acta to take him out "early." Before there was a chance to melt down. Early enough for a nap.

Then, Raffy - Vinnie - Tony - Perez. Lights out. Zero hits, three walks and six strikeouts in four innings. Chris Perez was SPECTACULAR, striking out two and then getting Brennan Boesch to pop out. Got his 17th save, putting him second in the league by one.

The record is 62, if you were wondering.

Our bats tonight...oh, what bats!!! Everybody hit except for one guy. I'll let you guess which guy.

Did you guess Brantley? I bet you didn't! Brantley didn't hit an in fact struck out twice. But we won - ha ha!!

Speaking of Brantley, I guess he rolled his ankle on his 4th at-bat. I found myself yelling at the radio "No! No Michael Brantley! Bad!" and doing the ASL sign for "no". I think I hang out with toddlers too much. But, he came back for a 5th at-bat so I guess he's ok. Whew!

We won with only ONE double and no homers. Thirteen hits! We even only got 3 walks!

I love it. Just love it!

Ok, so who was on fire tonight? The goddamn BOTTOM of the lineup! Especially Orlando, who got THREE hits and 2 RBI!

LaPorta got 2 hits and 2 RBI, and Sweet Lou got 2 hits and 1 RBI.

Tonight's lineup had Marson catching, Santana at first and LaPorta at DH. I am really liking Santana over LaPorta at first and Marson behind the plate. Marson's only allowed 9 steals in 176 innings, over Santana's 32 over 406. Santana, IMHO, has been better than LaPorta over at first.

And, nothing against Lou, but I don't want Santana run over at the plate anymore. I also don't want him concentrating on calling balls and strikes. There is some article out there about how players who are good catchers get worse at hitting as their catching gets better. I think it's true.

Ok anyway so, Grady struck out a whole lot less today. As in, none. He got himself an RBI. Santana walked again, good good. Also got a hit.

CHOOOOO collected two hits and a walk. Jim Rosenhaus says that even though his numbers may not show a comeback, the way he is hitting the ball looks comeback-y. He hit another hard one tonight. So nice to see that dude cross the plate! It woulda been fun to see that at home, huh? Let's hope he's feeling it for the rest of the week!

So 6 runs and 13 hits is exactly how we played in April and May. The pitching has pretty much been there the whole time, save for a few fumbles here and there. It was particularly harmonious for us to bat like that behind a winning Carmona. If you can't get into that, you crazy!


I just learned that Carrasco's nickname in the clubhouse is "Cookie." Love it!

Oh hey we weren't in first place anymore coming into this game. Now we're tied for first again. Tomorrow is THE game for first place. Weird, right?

Tomorrow's game is at 1:05 PM, against Max Scherzer. He's got an ERA over 4. FINISH HIM!!!

Radio Chatter:
"Catcher Alex Avila goes to the mound and says to Penny 'Look you've got three pitches, which one are you going to throw?'"
- Jim Rosenhaus

"You get the feeling the Indians are going to get to Brad Penny tonight."
- Tom Hamilton

"He realized it wasn't the beard, it was him."
"Shaved it off and hit a home run!"
- Tom Hamilton and Mike Hegan on Brennan Boesch's ex-beard

"If Fausto Carmona can throw strikes, Ordonez cannot hit them."
- Tom Hamilton

"I'll tell you what, he takes after mama's side of the family. Because his dad was a big strapping lineman."
- Tom Hamilton on Tiger relief pitcher Daniel Schlerech

"He'd have to be Carlton Fisk to get that one. Or maybe Dirk Nowitzki."
- Mike Hegan on a high wild pitch

"This guy you just hold your breath every time he comes to the plate."
- Tom Hamilton on Miguel Cabrera (no relation)

"He coulda used a relay man there. Hand him a baton...somebody else to go the other 35 feet."
- Mike Hegan on Miguel Cabrera's slowness out of the box

"I said to Tony [Sipp] the other day, how did Clemson do in the post season? 'Don't know, don't care.'"
- Tom Hamilton on Tony Sipp's Clemson coach telling him he'll never make it in the pros

"Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. And Charlie's got the blues."
"[...] By the way, I didn't ignore that. I had something deep to say and now I've lost it..."
- Tom Hamilton cracking up Mike Hegan

Not No-Hit

Well a few games ago I relished us not being shut out, and now I'm just happy we're not no-hit!

Verlander has always had our number, and especially so tonight. He looked good, that's all we can say.

He hit Choo in the first inning, so that was all for the perfect game. Brantley eked out a walk in the 7th. The unlikely candidates for hits tonight? Orlando and Santana in the 8th and 9th.

It's true - not even Asdrubal managed to hit Verlander tonight!

Choo did get a home run, which is encouraging. Except Austin Jackson pulled it back into the park, so it was more of an out than a run.

Pitching? Eh...it was no Carrasco - Sipp - Pestano - Perez, no sir. Masterson gave up 5 walks, but only 2 earned runs and struck out 4 in 6.1 innings.

Yeah our defense didn't back him up too well again, and of course neither did our offense. Brantley did do this though.

Hey, guess what! Hafner played for Akron tonight. It's beginning of a rehab assignment. I'm still not clear on when he's coming back...Maybe this weekend against the Pirates? We can't really use him from the 20th to July 3rd when we're AWAY against national league teams. He'll probably make one appearance per night, for the pitcher.

Tomorrow we're not facing Justin Verlander, so that's good. The guy we are facing has had some troubles recently so perhaps we can capitalize on that?

See you tomorrow!

Radio Chatter:
"So the Indians defensively are letting down Justin Masterson."
- Tom Hamilton

"A fan somehow reached up and snagged that foul ball. That's the kind of defense the Indians are looking for."
- Tom Hamilton

"Right now the way he [Verlander] looks, I'd be shocked if the Indians got a hit. Nothing against the Indians offense but this kid would be no-hitting anybody tonight."
- Tom Hamilton

"I wonder how many people in the Motor City are trying to get down here to get a ticket tonight. History is in the making."
- Tom Hamilton

Glimmer

A faint FAINT glimmer of hope revealed itself to me during today's game, in the form of 8 whole hits. There was even a point where we had the bases loaded, which was nice to see.

Of course, I was bashed about the brain with 8 whole strikeouts. I counter-attacked with three doubles and five stolen bases. En garde!

Our pitching was not too good but our fielding was worse. Hooray for pitching?

Asdrubal Cabrera got 3 hits this afternoon and still has a batting average over .300. If he's not your favorite baseball player yet, I don't know what your deal is.

Hey, Orlando Cabrera got his 2000th hit! That's so Eddie Murray of him, amirite? MLB.com did not see fit to post a video or even a photo of it. It actually was a little bit suspect as a hit. Remember the other day's Radio Chatter when Rosie was talking about the official scorer wanting to be extra sure about Jeter's 3000th? But a hit it was and they kept the ball and everyone gave him hugs and stuff. So that was nice.

Time for him to have an extended vacation and watch Cord Phelps grow as a 2B perhaps?

I went to go look at tomorrow's matchup (Cool Carrasco vs. A.J. Burnett) and I found this site called imgross.org on which there is a picture of A.J. Burnett's tattoos and associated mockery. I laughed. I also liked that the site's header is a picture of a beardy, because beardys are gross. Not all beardies are gross - gotta love our favorite beardies Chris Perez and Nice Brian W. Even Scott Cabrera keeps it tight. But, see what big bushy Galifianakis does to your face? Gross.

Ok, tomorrow at 7:05 PM. Will the glimmer of hope turn in to an eked-out win? That's all we ask for. According to some post-game interviews, Manny Acta has some stuff up his sleeve with regards to the lineup. So, we'll see.

Radio Chatter:
"If you're in the upper deck you are a long way from the action."
"And if you're in the lower seats you're either a multi-millionaire or you snuck in."
- Jim Rosenhaus and Tom Hamilton

"C.B. Bucknor is one of the nicest men, but the worst umpire."
- Tom Hamilton

"Jack Nicholson made that movie before he got courtside seats to the LA Lakers. But that movie helped him get those seats."
- Tom Hamilton explaining One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest for the youngsters. The movie came up because apparently Yankee pitcher Freddie Garcia looks like the character Chief and carries that nickname.

"You can eat all the sushi you want but you still have to age. A lot of players are eating sushi like it's the fountain of youth. [...] I'm not saying sushi is bad, just give me some Lake Erie perch, fried up."
- Tom Hamilton

"The Indians have pretty much let everybody back in to the [penant] race."
- Tom Hamilton

Noontime Nail-Biter

If you didn't hear, Cord Phelps was brought up from the minors and Shelley Duncan sent down. Big blow for the Dunc Tank who is way too old for the minors but Acta pointed out we won't be facing but 2 lefty's in the next dozen or so games, so the guy hitting .152 versus RHP had to go.

Phelps came up to play 2nd and if you recall, we discussed this scenario 2 days ago because The Cleveland Fan had made the plea to bring someone up to replace Orlando. I like it and I like it a lot. I think our farm system is outstanding and I also think our coaches (Nunley, Acta) are outstanding with young players. And, since Dunc took one for the team, Orlando gets to stay on and be a veteran presence in the club house.

All eyes were on Phelps today, so he did this and then this in the field. A couple of balls that may have gotten past Orlando? Possibly. Orlando is better going to his right than to his left but you have to assume that a spry young guy is going to get a few inches of stretch over Cabrera.

Phelps did not produce at the plate today, but it was just last night that he came up. On the radio they mentioned that his parents didn't have time to get to Cleveland but his sister flew in from Manhattan to see him. I wonder what she does that she can get from Manhattan to Cleveland so quickly? That's pretty awesome of her. Especially since if she would have waited 24 hours, he'd be on a bus on his way to New York for our series against the Yankees.

You know who did produce at the plate today? Michael Brantley! I don't know how he's not back at .300 yet - he's gotten 15 hits and 6 walks in the last 10 games. Perhaps maybe being lead-off is giving him too many at-bats. Whatever the case, I am still sure he'll be over .300 at the break.

Asdrubal did not do anything spectacular today. No idea why. No hits, no crazy fielding. An off-day, I guess. I don't think he's had an actual off-day yet this year. His stats say 59 games (today was game 60) but I don't know if they have updated the stats today or not. Another cool thing about Cord Phelps is that we can sit Asdrubal or even have him hit DH for a game or two. Phelps actually is more of a SS than a 2B.

Oh, in all my excitement of loving Michael Brantley and worrying about Asdrubal, I forgot that our two runs today came courtesy of HOME RUNS by GRADY and SUPERMANAHAN!

I don't know why, but MLB.com posted Tom Hamilton's audio for the Hannahan homer video clip, so here it is. Enjoy!

Not only did we get homers today but both CHOOOO! and Santana got doubles. Although I do report every time they get hits, and it seems to be almost every night, with this team slump I can see why everyone is pretty frustrated with those two. If they're only getting one hit per game, it's not usually with RISP or when we need it. They can keep hitting their doubles but if they can manage to do it when someone is on base ahead of them - sweet!

Speaking of sweet, Sweet Lou - who's had a few 2-day catching stints here and there - broke an 0-for-23 slide today with not one but TWO hits. Oddly enough, even though he's ahead of Brantley, he did not make it home either time. But, good to see him get his stuff back. Since he's a bencher and has so few at bats, his average went up .010 points just by getting those 2 hits to put him back over .200. Whew!


Justin Masterson was decent today. He gave up 3 runs but once again - 3 runs used to be nothing to this team and now it's nearly insurmountable. Manny Acta actually said he was very disappointed today and especially disappointed for Justin not getting the W. Although it was Chris Perez who got the L.

One more time, tho - Justin Masterson, shave your fucking beard. For real. Look at yourself!

Photo by MLB.com

Even though this was a one-run loss in 10 innings to the worst team in our division, it was still an exciting bit of baseball. We got 10 hits, just not enough runs. My heart was flippity-floppin through a lot of it, that's for sure!

The game wasn't on WKYC today, by the way. I sat down and made a list of games on broadcast really early on, perhaps even before the season started. So my info is a bit off. Two of my friends did tell me they were "watching" on Gameday today and they really liked it! Me too!

Everyone has the next two nights off so make sure you get all your chores done and meet me back here Friday night as we take on the Yankees for the first time this season. And, from what I hear, BOTH Saturday and Sunday's games will be on WKYC. That really tickles me! Me, my dog, Tom Hamilton and Jim Rosenhaus all sitting on my couch. Will you be there too?

Radio Chatter:
"That's his second bat of the day. Good thing he's going home - might not have much lumber left for a longer road trip."
- Mike Hegan on Cuddyer's broken bat

"You said it, Tom. They needed a spark from somebody, somewhere, and that just did it."
- Mike Hegan on Hannahan's game-tying homer

"If you're wondering, the Indians have 4 walk-off wins."
- Tom Hamilton

Cool, Cool Carrasco

My friend Mike told me that you gotta touch Bob Feller's (statue) foot when you come in to Progressive Field for good luck. I did so today, and waddaya know. Good luck!

Ok so I took care of the good luck and Carlos Carrasco took care of the good pitching and 7 other guys took care of good defense. All in all, I'm pleased with everyone's performance. Good job, all of us!

Seriously though, it was a great night for baseball. The weather was bearably warm with the wind coming off the lake. The midges have already left. We got all the rainy stuff over with early this morning. I managed to pick my friend up in Cleveland Heights without getting lost once.

I was so feelin Carrasco tonight. Probably because I got seats right up against the bullpen and was so close to the catcher that I literally was feeling Carrasco warm up. Check it:

It was some how extra-special for me that he got the W tonight and also that he went 8.1 shut-out innings. He got 6 strike outs and only gave up one walk and 3 hits. Liriano only gave up 3 hits for the Twins but it wasn't his turn today.

Perez came in for 2 outs of relief and got his 15th save. He collects those like Pokemon! His strike-out of Cuddyer to end the game was pretty epic, though. Because Cuddyer just got so mad. Lulz!

Perez walked by me like 5 times in the bullpen but he was very hard to get a picture of. I think perhaps he is part ninja. I did snag one, though:

It's him, you can tell by the beard. Turns out all the other guys are extremely hard to name because they wear nameless warm-up jerseys over their names and I still don't see them enough on TV to know who's who. This is Tony Sipp, doing some deep-knee bends. I know because later on he took off his warm-up and I saw his name:

I don't know who this guy is, but I wanted to take a picture of the top of his head so I could show you just how close I was to real baseball players all night:

Here's a shot of my view of the actual game too, just in case you were wondering if I watched anything other than the bullpen:

Nice, huh? Got that seat for $15, too, thanks to a 50% off promotion via Facebook. I was actually in the middle of purchasing tickets last week when The Indians were like "hey buy cheap tickets for next week!" on Facebook. Seren....wait for it....dipity!

Oh so back to the baseball game, which we won. Did not win due to any sort of outstanding hitting, although Orlando and Santana both got doubles (which Santana turned into a triple). It is very good that they hit something because I'm about going crazy over here with batters 4-9 doing a whole lot of nothing.

Shelley Duncan managed to get one down in the infield which scored Santana from his perch at third, and it was hella awesome. You don't expect that sort of thing from either Santana or Duncan but together they made it happen.

One was all we needed because Carrasco was on FIRE. Really in control the entire game.

What was also awesome was our infield defense today. Santana looked fantastic at first, really. Nothing got by him. Orlando and Supermanahan got their jobs done. Of course, Asdrubal was AM AZING once again, I'm sure thanks in part to my sign!

The infield looks like they were really paying close attention to how they were playing today. You could almost see them mouthing "Get ball. Set feet. Throw ball." as they carefully but confidently took care of 13 ground-ball outs. Their play really mattered a lot today, with the way they've been hitting. One error could have lost them the game.

Nooner tomorrow and I'm stoked. We really need to be winning going in to Friday in New York against the Yankees. And we need the real Slim Masterson to please stand up. It'll be against Carl Pavano, maybe we have some sort of secret old dusty book on him (he used to pitch for us). He's old, you know. Older than me and I am old.

The game's on WKYC channel 3 tomorrow, for those of you without cable. I actually don't have a TV in my office but I'll put it on the TV in the living room (I work from home) just so I can see replays, and so my dog can watch too. And maybe I'll take a long lunch.

See you tomorrow!

Not Shut Out

After not scoring for two games and being completely blown out before that, it was cool to have a game with hits, runs and a close score. Of course, this sort of situation was much cooler earlier in the season where we were bustin' it out in the 8th and 9th inning, but at least there was some Cleveland baseball tonight.

Michael Brantley and Asdrubal Cabrera seriously could not be happier to be back next to each other. They both went 3-for-4 and got all three of tonight's Indians earned runs. Now they totally remind me of Walter and Perry from Home Movies. Michael Brantley belongs at #1 and Asdrubal #2. Orlando at #2...that did not work so well, so end of experiment.

Did you see Asdrubal's home run? Number 12! And then BRANTLEY too!! Brantley has surpassed his 2010 number and Asdrubal has surpassed his 2009 and 2010 combined.


Check out this article by Michael Kramer on The Cleveland Fan, the bit about Orlando Cabrera. Do you think it's time to send our gift horse out to pasture? I would actually like to see one of our farm boys come up and see what's up while the season is still young enough for us to know if they're ready. What's wrong with platooning a young guy with Orlando? He has enough pop left in him to make some cheer-worth appearances but he's leaving a little to be desired at second and lately his bat is doing us no good (although that's not an Orlando-only problem.) Anyway, I wonder why we haven't brought anyone in to dabble at 2nd? Maybe we'll see someone new soon.

Choo got his hit tonight. Not sure how he didn't get his 9th assist tonight but it sure was close. I don't think it was for lack of power on that arm!

Tomlin was the starter and he lost it for himself. I think 6 is a bit much to overcome. Well, for this current team right now. It wasn't a huge loss but it wasn't aces.

Rafael Perez came in and threw TWO scoreless, hitless innings which is pretty impressive for him. Keeping that ERA under 2 still. Durbin came in and shut them down in the 9th. I wonder if Acta throws him out there to bring his ERA down.

So our bats are swinging and our lineup is lining up, and our pitches aren't losing their minds. I'm going to the game tomorrow and so excited to be sitting next to the bullpen. I've never done that in all my years as a fan, not even in Municipal Stadium! I'm starting to explore right field this year...previously I spent a lot of time along the 3rd base line, and in the club seats before that. Right isn't so bad, got some good seat prices out there.

Definitely look for my double-sided "OMG ASDRUBAL!!" foam-board sign!

Oh, and check out this stud muffin we drafted tonight. I hope we see him sometime soon! Ok not too soon because he's a shortstop. If he can play 2nd, sign him up tomorrow!

One more thing - if anyone wants to grab me some Radio Chatter for Tuesday, I'd be eternally grateful!

Radio Chatter:
"Good news, guys! Julie is 24 and still single! But you'd better not dawdle, as pretty as Julie is..."
- Tom Hamilton during the birthday greetings

"If Travis Hafner can hit for the cycle, aaaaanyone can."
- Tom Hamilton on Brantley's performance

"Rosie has reminded me to do a station identification for the first time in about a month. Stephanie Hagel has been barking at us about it for weeks."
- Tom Hamilton

"I tell you what Tom if you saw the way he started you wouldn't think he'd be here in the 8th inning."
- Mike Hegan on Scott Baker's performance

"They've set the table but nobody's clearing it!"
- Mike Hegan on Brantley and Asdrubal's performance

"For the Minnesota Twins, the 8th and 9th innings have become the Bermuda Triangle. It's where victories get lost."
- Tom Hamilton

Royal Beating

Can a team carry the momentum of a fantastic walk-off win at home across two rain-outs and one time zone? Survey says yes!

So here's the low-down. KC starter Kyle Davies was not faring very well there in the first. He walked three guys and was pitching in the 80s (that's MPH) and they ended up taking him out due to injury. So Nate Adcock comes in for relief and gives up 2 runs in the form of Davies' baserunners (after less than an inning of work, dude gets the loss. Bummer.)

We score more off this kid in the next inning, and in comes Vin Mazzaro the guy who was slated to start for KC tomorrow.

Then we score 10 runs in the 4th off Mazzarro. His ERA went from 4.50 to 22.74. How do you even let a pitcher give up 10 in one inning? Three-run doubles will sneak up on you real quick. So, yeah, not a good outing for ol' Vin.

Remember way back in April when we played the Royals for first place? That seems like a lifetime ago, eh?

Their first baseman, Eric Hosmer, is really good. And that's all I have to say about the Royals.

So, on to THE TRIBE and the amazing things THE TRIBE did tonight, and wonderful wonderful BASEBALL being back after a long quiet weekend!

First off - everybody hits! Didja see, I added a new star over there -->

Twenty hits for our boys tonight, producing 19 runs. Two-out RBIs? Eleven. Runners left in scoring position? Only six.

Not only did everyone hit but one of our three pinch hitters hit. SHELLEY DUNCAN with a double!

I was pondering Friday night if Brantley's AVG would be up over .300 today, after the weekend. Well the weekend never happened but tonight he got two hits and four RBI, and walked twice, putting his AVG up to .304! Oh and remember how I said he was emulating Grady? He got his fourth homer tonight!

Asdrubal - got his 9th double and stole two bases! He got another RBI and still leads the team with 26!

You know what it means when everyone hits, right? It means that CHOOOOOO has a hit! As a matter of fact he's got TWOOOOO! Almost everything he hit tonight was long, but not quite long enough (before the game, Hammy and Rosie assured us that not much was leaving the park tonight.) He did manage a double, though,

Carlos Santana also hit AND stole a base! That bear is looking into every honey pot this year. He also moved over to play first when they brought Marson in to pinch for LaPorta (don't worry, just some extra playing time for the benchers). Santana also walked three times, which is super awesome for him because if he's not hitting and he's not walking well...you know the rest.

PRONK! Only one hit but he made it count - one of those aforementioned three-run doubles!

Orlando Cabrera was all "This is fun, guys!" and got three hits. And three RBI. I think the thing I miss most about not seeing the games on TV this season is seeing Orlando Cabrera having so much fun playing baseball. Seriously! Although we do get to see him in all those walk-off highlight videos. I think he just has a lot of fun getting hits, too. Anyway, three hits for "O-Cab" que es todos de cinco hits y cuatro carreras por Dos Cabreras! Sorry, Spanish lapse.

Next up, Travis Buck, who is up from Columbus in place of the injured Grady. On one hand...can you imagine what we'd be like if we had Grady up in that shit tonight? On the other hand, I am so very glad we can send our star player away for a time for maximum medical attention and get a premium player like Buck from our reserves. And then that guy comes up and is all three hits! Three runs! One RBI! Hi Cleveland glad I'm not in Oakland!

Matt LaPorta! What got in to that guy tonight? He was getting hot before the "break" and continued on tonight with four hits and 4 RBI. Two doubles! I hope he keeps it up - love seeing production down at the end of the order there.

Jack! Hannahan! Did you vote yet? He got a hit tonight too!

All right so that was our offense. How about our pitching? Well you know, Josh Tomlin - who was was actually about to pitch last night - was all "yeah ok I'll pitch tonight" and he did and he went 6 innings and gave up just five hits and one run and got the W. He only had 81 pitches but why "use up" a starter when you're up 17-1? As Trevor Crowe (@tcrowe4) put it "BREAKING NEWS.... You will Die! You will Pay Taxes! Josh Tomlin will give you 6 Strong Innings!" Yeah man, sounds good to me!

Germano. Durbin. Pestano. 0-0-0. Goodnight!

So anyway that was way fun, huh? Totally different than this walk-off stuff. Still fun to listen to all the way through! I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see how we'd score next. And, of course, waiting to see if everyone hits.

What do you think about this....if the Indians had been down 13-1 in the 4th, would you have gone to bed? Would you have called it over? How about 17-1? 19-1? I definitely would have stayed. I don't think 13 is too much for this team if we're facing the right kind of pitchers (as in, not the group we just got done facing). Maybe not 17 or 19, but we'd sure give them a run for their money. Remember Opening Day? We almost did that.

We won, KC lost, Detroit lost, Chicago lost, Minnesota is about to lose. How many games ahead do you need to be to be "running away" with your division??

Tomorrow's sadly our last game against these generous Royals this week. But then, we face the super-generous White Sox! Don't forget, all Central Time this week so see you tomorrow at 8:10 PM!

Radio Chatter:
"That may have been the longest trip to the mound ever."
- Jim Rosenhaus after Tom Hamilton took advantage of some down time to explain how Rosie's induction into the Buffalo Bisons Hall of Fame is starting to affect their jobs

"Not only have the horses left the barn, the barn has burned to the ground."
- Tom Hamilton on the 10-run inning

"You know you've had quite a night offensively when your number eight man in the batting order has been to the plate 6 times. It's like a softball game."
- Tom Hamilton

Price is Right

Man, what a softball headline. I betcha the wrap-up on Indians.com has the same title or something similar in a 32pt font. How often do you think they use that headline in the Tampa Bay newspaper? Only once, I hope.

Anyway, I think David Price is angry and he's taking it out on the Tribe. He's angry because a couple weeks ago he gave up 5 runs and 12 hits to the Blue Jays. So now he's all "I'M GOING TO PITCH A PERFECT GAME!" "Or maybe a complete game shutout." "Or maybe a complete game."

You can't really pitch those sorts of things against these Indians. Well you can pitch a complete game if you can pitch more than 100-120. And if Grady is out getting an MRI and Pronk is having his night off and if we have to bring in Austin Kearns. What's really going to happen is that you pitch 8 and you luck out because our pitcher is just back from the DL and is not quite so good.

Here's a funny story about me and Austin Kearns...last year I was telling my friend (a Braves fan) how much I like our young team and how we've got some cool new youngsters, like Austin Kearns. And my friend, who doesn't listen to every word so he obviously missed me saying "youngsters", told me how he remembers Kearns being in some sort of home run race in 2006 or so. And I said "Wut? He's new." And my friend said "no, he's been around, like, forever." And we looked it up and sure enough, his rookie season was 2002.

Oops. I wasn't paying attention at all, was I? Well, it IS hard when you only hear games and never see them. Unless Hamilton tells me a guy's age and history, I guess I assume he's from our farm team.

Other story about Austin Kearns: He "came with" Manny Acta from Washington to Cleveland. The move turned out great for him and his family because they got a lot of help for their son at the Cleveland Clinic Children's Center of Autism. We sent him to the Yankees last July but he came right back because Cleveland is the best place for his family to live. Cool, huh?

He's going to be here a long time, I guess, so we'd better embrace him. I am ready to embrace him, for real. Except there's no real place for him right now. Other than our Hot Bench Of Awesomeness!

Anyway, back to David Price. Because this is the David Price edition of The Positive Tribe. I should let our less-aware readers know that David Price is the pitcher for Tampa Bay that pitched against us and won. He's pretty good I guess...but he's only 4-3, he's no Masterson. He isn't on any of the League Leaders lists. But for some  reason not only did he hold the Tribe to 5 hits, he went 8 innings and also only gave up 2 runs.

Oh, and Tom Hamilton and Mike Hegan gushed over him all night. Weird.

When he WASN'T busy getting Indians out, he was busy giving up doubles. Four doubles tonight! Satana, LaPorta and Dos Cabreras!

Brantley got a hit too, a RBI single. His AVG is creeping up to .300!

Tomorrow's game is at NOON so don't forget! Anyone able to go to that sort of thing? I went one year with my friend AJ and it was fun but we missed half the game because it took forever to park. Hmmm...that's right, AJ is a teacher so he's free for afternoon games all summer. I think I might need to skip more work this year! But not tomorrow. School's not out yet.

Ok, that's all about the Tribe for tonight. "But, I want to know more about David Price!" you say? Well, Radio Chatter has you covered.

Oh yeah, here's a link to the Indians.com/MLB.com wrapup. It's not up right now (I scooped them!) but it'll be up shortly and you can see what clever Price-praising headline they came up with.

Radio Chatter, The David Price Edition:
"I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, Fred Griffith, but you got the wrong time to get the Bedford Nissan Grand Slam Payoff. Not with David Price on the mound."
- Tom Hamilton

"Being 5 runs down against David Price, it might as well be 15 runs."
- Tom Hamilton

"If you get hit in the back with one of Price's pitches, you might not take another breath until midnight."
- Tom Hamilton

"It had to come to an end, and if it had to come to an end you'd think it would be against a guy like David Price."
- Tom Hamilton

Lots of Baseball From The O-Town

Even though we knew it was going to be another low-scorer, there was a surprising amount of excitement from today's game.

The first exciting thing was that it was an afternoon game, and we can all go to bed at a decent time tonight. Yay! Although it turns out that a 3PM game is sort of hard to work with when it comes to walking the dog and eating dinner and going to the park. I kept having to go from radio to Walkman to car stereo to TV to Walkman to car...and I totally missed the last inning. Blah. But, I did catch the TV wrap-up, and most of the exciting plays so it was all good.


Jeanmar Gomez didn't do too bad for his 4th time out. He gave up 6 hits but only one run. It was rather unfortunate that he only went 5.1 innings, tho, as the game went 12 innings and we used six relievers. Smith, R. Perez, Pestano, Sipp, Durbin, C. Perez. Do we have anyone else? I wonder if Masterson will give us 9 tomorrow? He's done everything else....why not?


My two least favorite pitchers, Smith and Durbin (hey, someone's gotta be at the bottom, right?) were mighty impressive today. Did you see Smith's super awesome defensive play? Durbin went for 2 strong innings late in the game (innings 10 and 11) and held tight, which is exactly what we needed. And he got himself a win.


Chris Perez actually got himself jammed up, put some guys on base, gave up some hits, gave up a RUN...and thanks to a couple of insurance runs, it all worked out in the end. And he got his 9th save, putting him in second place in the league behind Mariano Rivera.

Guess who had an awesome night? ASDRUBAL! He went 2 for 5 and got 2 RBI, plus made some sweet plays including a bare-handed grab and putout in the 5th.

You know who had an even more awesome night? LOOOUUUUU Marson! Three hits and an RBI, one of those hits being a TRIPLE, I shit you not. That guy always does something interesting when he gets in a game. I suspect you have no choice but to be memorable if you're a backup catcher.

How 'bout Supermanahan? Got the winning-tying-winning RBI today! Don't forget to vote for Jack!

Orlando Cabrera has an 8-game hitting streak.

Good stuff from the outfield today, too. Brantley had a great back-to-the-plate catch and Choo held a guy at third. Respect!

I'm glad we're done with Oakland. Wish we were done with the west coast but it is not to be. Going to be 3 more hard ones against the Angels, but we came out of this one with a series win. I'm ready to see a team with some bad pitching and have our guys get a bunch of runs again. When are we going to see some shitty pitching again? Anyone know?

Since I wasn't around for most of today's game, I didn't get any good Radio Chatter, sorry. I'll try to have extra good stuff tomorrow.

See you tomorrow for another LATE one!

Dos Cabreras!

Is it catching on yet? Asdrubal Cabrera leads the team with 19 RBI and Orland Cabrera follows with 18. Orlando got the game-winning hit tonight and Asdrubal knocked in two insurance runs. Asdrubal got three hits! Orlando didn't even start - he came in as a pinch runner for Hafner, who came in as a pinch hitter for Everett - and he still won the game. Because that is the sort of thing that Dos Cabreras can do!

How much are you loving this lineup? I'M LOVIN' IT! Having Brantley down at 6th and Hannahan at 8 or 9 is like having two lead-off and two cleanup guys. It seems like a perfect balance of speed and power. Actually, all of our power guys can get small hits in too, unlike somThome players who either strike out or hit homers.

It took a minute to realize it, but Fausto was doing his job well tonight. He was getting the A's to swing at the ball, which is great. First, if they make contact then so what - there are 7 bored guys out there to pick it up. And second, the more they swing the fewer pitches he ends up putting out and the longer he can go. He went 8 innings and didn't hit 100 pitches. He also had TEN ground-outs. That's the stuff right there.

Fausto got win number 3, and Chris Perez threw 12 pitches and got save number 8. Sometimes it's comically easy for Perez to get his S but whatever. We like stats!

Nobody gave up any home runs tonight, on either side, although we did each have a man caught stealing and our Brantley got picked off as well (he was our guy caught stealing). In fact it was quite a pitcher's duel until the 9th, when we'd had our fill of the A's starter and subsequent relievers, and did our whole "THE TEAM WILL RALLY NOW AND PROBABLY WIN IN OUR LAST AT-BAT" thing. And that's exactly what happened.

You had to stay up late and also had to not settle down someplace comfy to have caught any action, but it was there.

Hey, Tom Hamilton wanted you to read this article on ESPN.com about what the heck is going on in the AL Central right now. It also should include a video about John Adams (patron saint of The Positive Tribe). John looks good on the TV! If the video is not part of the linked article (seriously, they're two different things), here it is here.

Is Coco Crisp still sporting his afro? I didn't see a lick of baseball on the tv tonight. I love the look, myself. It's my tradition the past few years to wear my Tribe hat like that on Opening Day...while at home by myself, of course. Oh yeah, I have hair like that. So I feel a bit of camaraderie with Coco, and of course, Oscar Gamble.

While we're talking about cool hair, I had this link saved for you too. It's a picture of Aeros pitcher Eric Berger and his handlebar mustache. No idea if he's still rollin with that but I thought you'd get a kick out of it.

Ok so I spent all day today yelling at people to go vote yes on our local school levy, and that failed. But I am all riled up and ready to get the rest of you to go vote for your Tribe for the All Star Game. This time, you can't just fill in all Indians, though, it's going to take a small bit of work. Do NOT vote for anyone for AL 3rd base - as you see, our designee is Jason Donald (rly? srsly.) That won't do. Not only is he not playing yet this year, our fill in JACK HANNAHAN IS AWESOME. So you gotta scroll on down to the write-in box and write JACK HANNAHAN for third base. Got it? DO NOT VOTE FOR A DIFFERENT THIRD BASEMAN!

Since you went through all the trouble of writing in Supermanahan for third base in the AL, MLB.com gives you a break by letting you vote 25 times in a row, just by pressing "vote now" 25 times. Now, you might find that absurd but you also have to remember that a ton of dorkuses are sitting there doing that 25 times in a row, and signing up with a new email address and doing it 25 more times, and finding a proxy and doing it again. Unless you want your vote to count as 1/25th of a vote, you kind of have to do it 25 times. Think of the children. Think of Meyer & Ashley.

Oh, and I'm sure a lot of you are all "I want the best players at the All Star game, not just my team or the best-known players," and I feel you. I wouldn't ask if I didn't think that every guy on our A-team wasn't All-Star quality. It's not like we're voting in Jhonny Peralta, you know?

I'll try to remind you every day until June 30. Really, I will. I will not be swearing and comparing people to Hitler like I did in my levy campaign, but it sure would be nice if I had a reason to watch the All Star Game this year.

Get ready for another pitcher's duel tomorrow. Two guys with low ERAs who are 4-0 (Tomlin and Trevor Cahill). Our key will be to make Cahill pitch pitch pitch and get past him to his relievers as soon as we can.

Dos Cabreras! Olé!

Radio Chatter:
"Right there is an example of an out that is simply a foul ball in any other ball park in the major leagues."
- Tom Hamilton

"The chance of the A's signing Adrian Beltre this summer was the same as Rosie and I sprouting wings and flying back to our hotel."
- Tom Hamilton

"Boy, the outfield couldn't play any deeper unless they were sitting on the wall."
- Tom Hamilton

"'Enjoy the journey'...that's the motto Stephanie Hagel has driven in to those of us who work here. 'Don't worry about whether or not we make it on the air or not, just enjoy the journey and I'll take care of the rest."
"Would you make that statement if it wasn't after midnight back home?"
"Oh sure, I'm livin' on the edge."
- Tom Hamilton and Jim Rosenhaus

"This would be a great way to start one of the ruggedest...that's not even a word...before we have every English teacher writing us...this would be a great way to start one of the most rugged road trips in baseball this year."
- Tom Hamilton

Quite a Welcome for Alex White

I bet you thought I was going to have a clever joke in the title about Albuquerque.  You were wrong. Actually I wanted to have some sort of awesome quote from A Clockwork Orange but that didn't work out welly-well. I went with vanilla title.

Alex White gave up 2 homers today, in the 4th. Scott Cabrera is not surprised. Alex White also takes the field to Billy Squire's "The Stroke". He is TOTALLY going to fit in here! But, seriously, he did great in his first major league start - especially with his whole family AND the entire Tarheel Baseball staff in attendance. Two runs but only on six hits, four strikeouts and only four walks. Fits right in, for real.

Our bullpen got the full stretch tonight, first with the "planned" Smith and Pestano in the 7th and 8th, and Chris Perez capping off the 9th. Only, our lineup didn't catch fire tonight so we had to figure out what was on the other side of the door and the answer is Rafael Perez (still gave up no runs) in the 10th and 11th, and Sipp in the 12th and 13th. Not bad to have 5 guys come out and give up no runs!

Hannahan was impressive at third today, picking up a sa-weet out from a bare-handed grab. He tried to make such a grab last night and almost did it (this was while coming across the middle of the diamond, tho) and tonight he actually almost bobbled it, but instead he looked like a great third baseman and got Miguel Cabrera out at first. Hammy and Hegan threw out the term "Gold Glove" after that one but...rly? Being from Cleveland I don't quite know what a Gold Glove third baseman looks like, so maybe I just don't get it. But, Gold Glove level or not, he's top quality for Cleveland PLUS he bats so we'll keep him!

Santana was looking like a first baseman today too AND he got his 5th home run, tying Asdrubal to lead the team. Santana was at first because both Grady and Hafner were out today. Hafner is still nursing the sore ankle but Acta said he was available to pinch hit, and will probably be back Monday.

Grady had off today because he is supposed to have a break after every 3rd game, and he had actually gone 4 games. So there was no choice but to let him sit.

But it's cool, because there wasn't much going on in the outfield and we've got Michael Brantley to fill Grady's other important role as lead-off man.

Brantley did his duty by getting 3 hits in the game (.297!) including a hit to lead off the 13th, and then drew a wild throw to first putting him on second. This of course gave our Bunter Of The Year Asdrubal Cabrera a chance to bunt him to 3rd, which is what happened. Choo, who is getting scarier (to other teams) every day got intentionally walked and guess what? So did Santana who is super scary to the Tigers right now.


Now you've got the bases loaded and really, if you look at the rest of our lineup, you have not done yourself any favors. Any of those guys can get a hit at any time. ESPECIALLY Orlando Cabrera. He's a veteran, he's gotten some key hits for us today. ESTE ES UNO DE DOS CABRERAS! 

And well, if you managed to get out Orlando Cabrera, Jack Hannahan would have figured it out.

So, another walk-off win for the Tribe. Really fun baseball these last two nights, even though it was sort of low-scoring and/or intermittent scoring. I had a great time, how about you?! Playing for that 18th April win and to gain a whole game over a team in the standings, all that stuff really adds to the excitement.

Speaking of excitement, you MUST check out this Facebook page, Tom Hamilton has the Best Home Run call in all of Baseball. Dude caps all of Hammy's home run calls and puts them on Facebook. It's the best audio clip Facebook page ever in the history of audio clip Facebook pages (do others exist?) I watched the video of Santana's walk off grand slam about 5 times on MLB.com last night but then today I watched Hamilton's version another 5 times. Goosebumps!

Speaking of MLB.com, you might think that I work for MLB.com or shill for them or get some sort of kickback for mentioning them but I actually don't. I guess maybe I am just a fan of Web sites that deliver fresh content and stuff. I don't know...I like it. I don't get money from them but if I did, you bet I'd be talking about them three times as much! Will blog for free swag!

Did anyone check out the John Adams (patron saint of The Positive Tribe) stuff at the game today? The Defend Cleveland Show reported that there were indeed drum lines present and he threw out the first pitch. Here's a picture of the only mention of it on Twitter. I would like to know more, tho. Tried to get someone to go to the game with me today...actually tried two someones...and failed. Did you know that John Adams has only missed 37 games (Wikipedia says 34..?) since 1973? I am pretty happy that so many people came out to see the game (25k plus) on John Adams day because seriously people, if he can come EVERY DAY then we can come out more often. We can even take turns.

Radio Chatter:
"There isn't a prettier ballpark than this one when it fills up like it did tonight. There's a new energy at the corner of Carnagie and Ontario."
- Tom Hamilton

"Looking at his jersey, he's got letters starting at his waist, going up and ending again at his waist."
- Tom Hamilton, commenting on Al Alburquerque

"He only weighs about a hundred pounds. [...] If his name was Saltalamacchia it would go all the way around his number. He only needs a few more letters."
- Mike Hegan's take on Alburquerque's name

"You're saying 'Why not go to Everett?' and it's because Jack Hannahan, against left handed pitching this year, is hitting .529."
- Tom Hamilton

"Jim Leyland, who normally has a cigarette going, has smoke coming out of his ears."
- Tom Hamilton on Brennan Boesch's first-pitch popup with a man at second in the 13th inning.

"...Unfortunately, April is over."
- Tom Hamilton

Supernatural

You know what I like best about this team? Better than the good pitching, better than the lightning fast outfield, better than the super cheap seats...?

I like that the whole team can hit. There is no soft spot, no downer in our lineup. Having 6 outs left in which to win a game seems like a lifetime. If someone just isn't feeling it, we've even got pinch hitters and benchers.

All night tonight I just knew that if we could get past this Scherzer fellow and see some new pitchers, our lineup would have no problem. Obviously Scherzer was golden, and Jeanmar Gomez was uhm...not so much. All our guys needed to do was get the guy to run up his pitch count, and get someone else in there and it was game over for the Tigers.

It was true. That's exactly what happened. Actually, we didn't have to get rid of Scherzer so much as tire him out. He was just around 100 pitches and had had a visit from Leyland when OMG ASDRUBAL! hit him out of the park and tied it at 5. Heynow!

Just to back up a bit...Jeanmar Gomez sort of sucked and so did Chad Durbin. Enough about that.

Even with 5 runs given up by those guys, we had some nice plays. Hannahan played some third base, remembering to take care of the runner going home in the 2nd. There were good plays on each side of second by Dos Cabreras. Who knows what the score would have been if we weren't playing a real game of baseball.

Ok so this time last year, we'd all have been turning off the TVs or maybe going to bed early. (Well not me but I am obviously insane) This year, tho...did everyone else feel it? A three-run deficit in the 6th, is that a big deal anymore?

Not when you have - dum da duuummm - SHELLEY DUNCAN! Remember him from last night from remembering him from the night before? He's been in for Hafner and has done something exciting every night. Tonight's exciting thing was a two-run single in the 6th to bring us within one.

But o noes - Durbin and Smith sort of gave up two more runs in the 7th. You GUYS! Stop it!

It's ok, tho. Because not everyone on our team had gotten a hit yet, and we hadn't hit any homers yet. Turns out these are things we've decided we really like to do lately. Especially with the home runs.

LaPorta goes long, then the aforementioned visit to the mound -> OMG ASDRUBAL! and now it's tied!

The real bullpen comes out - Vinne Pestano with his studly 0.90 ERA. Three up, three down. Orlando gets his hit, Brantley gets his hit. It wouldn't be a Tribe game lately if Brantley didn't get his hit, huh? It's .282, if you're wondering.

Chris Perez, our firestarter does his job and does it well in the 9th.

Then, dangit, it was time to get down to business. Three outs to get one run? No friggin' problem! If one guy gets on, it's a pretty safe bet someone will come up and get him in. Because we need it and because it matters. Because we need to break our record of 16 wins in April and we need to get our 57th walk-off win at Progressive field and Perez needs his first W and the season's biggest non-opening-day crowd NEEDS THIS WIN!!!

So Hannahan gets his hit, and Grady gets his hit (wow yeah, didn't hit until the 9th), and they put Asdrubal on because OBVIOUSLY HE IS A BEAST and now it's up to Santana. Well not totally up to Santana as there is just one out but you know what? Everyone else has gotten a hit thus far. And the bases are juiced. And everyone in Cleveland is about done praying to the altar of Carlos Santana because really he was going to save us if he could only heal up and it turned out that we didn't quite need him anyway.

Well now we needed him. We needed him to do something like get a walk or get a sacrifice fly. He needed to do it too because we all still remember a week or so ago when he froze up at the plate and watched 3 go by for an out instead of a hit. Something needed to happen and it sure would be nice if Carlos Santana could do it right here.

So, on 3 and 1 Manny Acta or maybe Sandy Alomar or even Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ gave him the green light and Carlos Santana ripped a grand fucking slam to right field and won the game, amen.

Here's the video. I wish you could hear Hamilton call it because it was a thing of beauty, but television will do. At least you get to see the celebration. I was cleaning my bedroom - because that's what cool people do on Friday nights - and I whooped and danced, yes I did. It's funny when you listen to games alone because there's no one around to hear you scream. All I could muster was a few texts of "AAAAAHHHH!" to Scott Cabrera, in hopes that I could perhaps share the joy with someone. Because my dog...well she is not a fan of the whooping and dancing.

Anyway, wish you were here. Or wish I was there. But at least I have my Hammy and that is pretty exciting.

Hey remember how I mentioned that I should do some sort of "thing" when everyone hits? I gotta do that thing now. I think I'll use stars from the Mario games, since Mario's coins are the Indians' choice for runs scored. Stars sort of make sense...

Also did you know that "Everybody hits!" is already a thing? It's a thing for Philadelphia. You can even get it on some underwear.

I'm not going to talk about "believing" or going/not going to games or anything anymore. Because if you don't get Indians baseball now, you never will. I'm just going to keep enjoying it and being happy that I picked this year to do this blog because damn, is this easy!

Remember an early start, 6:05, tomorrow. And it's John Adams Day (patron saint of The Positive Tribe), celebrating his 3000th game. So people better show up to honor the man. I might possibly go, but my only drum is a kid's drum. And I just noticed that one of the sticks is misplaced. I wonder, tho, if I own a pair of real drum sticks? I know I used to have some...IF ONLY I WERE STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL! Growing up sucks.

Anyway, try to go to the game if you can. If not, join us on the radio at 6. By "us" I mean the other people listening to the radio. I'll see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Is it that hard to let everyone know what the call is? Is his right arm that heavy?"
- Tom Hamilton

"Now, what in the world...why, in the month of April, should a team from the west coast play a team from Florida in a dome? It's not that hard to make the schedule. It's idiotic."
- Tom Hamilton

"Manny Acta's faith never has waivered on Santana. And never has a manager's faith had such a big return."
- Tom Hamilton

Bad Fausto Shows Up

I thought the deal was we always lost to the Royals, but I guess we always lose to the Twins too. Even when we're in first and they're in dead last. Oh well, we brought a little joy to the Twin Cities today.

I didn't get to listen to the game "live" today but after an Easter dinner and a nap, the audio for the game was available online on MLB.com. I was actually excited to use this feature, and was able to avoid the score by going through the MLB.com site.

A Gameday Audio subscription comes free when you become a member of the Tribe Fan Club, which costs $19.95/year. You also get 2 free tickets and 10% off at the team shop and your name on the scoreboard. They send you a picture of your name on the scoreboard, which is cool. There's also some other benefits with the fan club but I haven't used any of them. Anyway, you actually make money on the deal if you use the Gameday Audio and stuff.

One thing that sucks is that, at least in the Apple Store, if you want to get the MLB At Bat 2011 (which comes with Gameday Audio) you still have to pay $14.95 for the app, which includes Gameday Audio. So really you can end up paying for Gameday Audio twice.

Although, I guess paying $34.90 once a year and getting Gameday Audio and two free tickets is better than subscribing to cable. Plus - Tom Hamilton!

So, Grady got a hit and it was A-WAAAAAY BACK - a homer! Keeping his AVG at .391. Still just under 30 at-bats, so not quite legit yet but he is hitting...three doubles and two homers. Not bad! Brantley was batting 7th again as Orlando Cabrera was back in playing second base.

Asdrubal got a hit. A double! Apparently he was rockin' the short sleeves even though it was a cold one in Minnesota, 43 degrees at game time. It was in the 70's here...I was sweatin' my butt off at grandpa's house! (You know old people...no A/C in sight)

Here's a nice play from Dos Cabreras (I just made that up - do you think it will catch on?) I do believe Tom Hamilton said that Orlando "nearly killed" Asdrubal.

Hafner got a hit too - a rare infield hit. Rare for this year at least, as he has really be smackin' the ball for power.

Good news in the standings, tho - Kansas City lost yesterday and today (to Texas, who is tied with us for best record in the league so don't get all excited that K.C. might suck) so we're still a game-and-a-half ahead of them despite losing a game and missing a game.

Funny stuff, being in first place, huh? Always gotta be aware of what other teams are doing.

Happy Easter! Going to visit with my niece tomorrow. We'll see if I'm going to be watching the game or watching Sesame Street. I could enjoy either one equally, really. As long as I get my Hammy fix after-the-fact.

Radio Chatter:
"They got soft here in Minneapolis once they got the Metrodome. They didn't have to fight the blizzards to watch the Vikings at old Metropolitain Stadium. Nobody got softer than our engineer, Wayne."
- Tom Hamilton

"One thing stays consistent - the Indians can't get a left-handed hitter out."
- Tom Hamilton

"'Do you believe in miracles?' as Al Michaels once said. The Indians need one here."
- Tom Hamilton

Another Nice Start

What an icky game tonight. Not the gameplay, but the weather. It was 54 degrees and rained most of the time. When I saw Choo go for a ball and sort of slosh around in the outfield I thought "No! Don't get wet! You can't work right if you're wet!" Or something. Just didn't seem right, all that rain.

But, they played on. Tomlin was our starter tonight and went all the way into the 8th, only giving up one run. Pretty good for this sort of weather for him to go so far. Here's a stat from the Indians.com wrap-up that I brought up during Tomlin's last start, but has now changed a bit:

"In each of Tomlin's 16 career starts for the Indians -- a franchise that was founded in 1901 -- Tomlin has logged at least five innings for the club. He is the only pitcher in the team's long history to have at least that many frames in each of his first 16 career appearances."

I decided pretty early on that the Royals and the Indians are going to be matched up pretty evenly when it comes to starting pitching and batting, and it will come down to the bullpen. Of course, I meant that our bullpen had the stuff but that wasn't the case tonight. But, at least they got some time in and for all intents and purposes didn't do that bad, so it's ok. And you know what? We STILL have given up the fewest home runs in the AL, by 2.

Grady, Grady! Is the kid back?! Three more hits tonight, hitting .421. How many ABs do you need to be legit? Thirty or so? He's got 18 I think.

Hafner got a hit tonight too, keeping his AVG well over .300. That guy is DEFINITELY back, for sure. Ok maybe not the home-run-hitting Pronk but to be honest we've faced some serious pitching lately.

How about Hannahan there at third in the 9th? Made a nice stop then got the runner out at home, although Aviles sort of tip-toed in. Not like Carlos Santana did in the 8th, when he was out by a mile at home but gave it the ol' college try and barreled in to the catcher to at least try to knock the ball out. It didn't work but at least he tried. And didn't break any bones.

Some crazy stuff going on in the middle of the diamond too. Orlando Cabrera was out and Everett (Everett!) was at 2nd. Nice move, because he's got some stick right now. Lots of guys falling over and stepping on each other out there around second, and Everett got an error. I wonder if the Royals' ground crew isn't quite as good as the Indians'? I'm sure Everett will be happy to have Orlando back tomorrow.

So far we've only had one injury (Mitch Talbot) which is good...and possibly due to Acta not over-playing anyone. I did hold my breath watching the tackling at home and the tumbling at second. Hopefully we don't find out a week from now that somebody's knee is bruised.

I was out at my "Neighborhood Bar and Grille" (ugh) tonight during the game and right afterward people were moaning and groaning about how we lost. Like, angry stuff, too. WTF people? Do you not realize we just lost to the third best team in the AL? It's not like we gave up 7 runs to Seattle and didn't score any ourselves. We lost by one run in the ninth after winning two other games against the team that's on our tail. Oh yeah and we also have a winning percentage over 600 so...boy, are people weird about Cleveland baseball.

If nothing else, it was a good game tonight. It was a tough game and someone had to lose it. Our bullpen can't pitch 0.00 all season. I can see maybe spouting obscenities when your starter gives up 8 or something but all of this bellyaching when your first place team loses a game is shameful.

I guess I'm not quite familiar about what it's like when your team is in first. One thing that I know to be true is that being chased all the time is no fun! Hopefully the Tribe can ease everyone's fragile hearts this weekend when they roll over the Twins and the Royals get served by the Rangers. Then we'll have a nice comfy lead when we meet the Royals AGAIN next week (seriously - did anyone at the MLB Scheduling Committee see this coming?) and then on to squash the Tigers.

More "late" baseball tomorrow, and probably more icky baseball as we go deeper in to the midwestern cold snap.

Hey! Who has off work tomorrow? Me too!

Radio Chatter:
"If you talk to the Royals they are happy as heck that Zach Greinke is gone from Kansas City. He was a bit of a Negative Nellie in the clubhouse..."
- Tom Hamilton

I also heard Hamilton pronounce picnic as "pick-a-nick" which was just darling.

Still on a Roll

Short post tonight, I am dead tired. Gotta get to bed so I can make it to tomorrow's game!

I thought this blog would be a bit of a challenge...well maybe not a challenge because I honestly can find fun and excitement in any game despite the score. But I did think it would be more of a lesson for others not to be so down on the Indians and this young team, and to help disgruntled fans learn to love baseball again.

So far, it's been a breeze. Even the first two games of the season - which we lost - were exciting as heck. We did score 10 runs in the first game, after all! Then again, after my assertions last year that THIS year would be a team to see, I shouldn't be surprised now should I? This blog probably would have been more meaningful last year, at least topic-wise. This year, it seems more like a diary of How My Team Made The Playoffs. So far.

Anyway, you heard it didn't you? Another game with fan-friggin-tastic pitching and even better hitting. Like, guys teeing off as if it were batting practice.

Hey guess who got a hit? A home run, even? CHOOO! That's who. LIKE! You know who else got a home run? Orlando Cabrera. Haven't heard from that cat in a few games but the bitch is back!

Hafner had a superb afternoon, going 3 for 4 with a double. I swear he really digs being at home. Home games must be best for big names like him don't you think?

Everyone got a hit today aside from Brantley, which...whatever. He's still hitting over .300!

Speaking of Brantley, Grady might possibly be back for Sunday's game. He was in the house today. If he makes it into the game, I will be there to welcome him back. Yay me!

Got to see my man SIPP! today with another scoreless 8th. Still rockin' the 0.00 ERA. And you know how many runs Chad Durbin gave up? None.

I bought some foam board and some "poster markers" to make my sign. It was really windy when I left the store with the board in my hand and I thought "wow this is the worst day ever to buy foam board." Now I see that the forecast for tomorrow simply says WINDY (italicized even) so I'm not sure if it's the right day to debut a sign made out of foam board. What if it flies away from me? What if it makes me fall over? Plus, I am too tired to make a sign right now, and I want to do it right. Choices, choices. What if I just bring a broom? (without a handle, of course)

I was only able to listen to the game in the background today, so I don't have any Radio Chatter for you. However, the always astute Scott Cabrera was able to snap this screen shot off the TV today and I will leave you with it, without comment.